


Birthday Surprise

by hypnoshatesme



Series: A Distorted (Work)Life [4]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Also includes, Fluff, Other, and some others are mentioned - Freeform, the whole s1 crew (minus elias)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:07:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27040204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hypnoshatesme/pseuds/hypnoshatesme
Summary: Michael decides to surprise Gerry for his birthday!...with mixed results.
Relationships: Gerard Keay/Michael | The Distortion
Series: A Distorted (Work)Life [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1944406
Comments: 8
Kudos: 46





	Birthday Surprise

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt was just "Birthday" but I already have a short called that and my friend suggested the surprise part and made me not skip today with it :)

“I have something for you.”

Gerry could feel the excitement undulating from it even before it spoke. He'd been somewhat confused by its absence that morning. Michael tended to never pass off being there to add extra confusion to Gerry’s mornings on his days off work. But this morning he had woken a regular amount of disoriented at the bright sun seeping in through the window.

Michael seemed to be making up for its lack of presence by being extra present now, making Gerry feel like his whole kitchen was shifting towards it, trying to be caught in that giddy excitement oozing off its fizzing form. It had been a while Gerry had seen it  _ this _ agitated. Not that he would remember the last time.

“Oh?” was all Gerry managed, hands on his counter, in part to steady himself as the dizziness hit, in part to make sure it was still there, still solid.

Gerry knew it was nodding vigorously without looking at it. He also knew the door was behind him without turning back. There was some distant corner in his mind that thought he was not dressed to go out, but it was too far away for him to not simply follow Michael’s lead as it pulled him through the door.

Gerry, before taking anything in with any of his senses, was instantly alarmed when they stepped out of the door again. It was that same vague presence he had been raised and groomed to pick up on, a sort of dread that lingered around things connected to any of the Fears. Except it was  _ strong _ , and when the haze of confusion settled a little, it was easy to tell what it was. He barely even heard the collective ‘happy birthday’ that followed his entry, adrenaline already rushing through him as his eyes skittered from a worm-riddled woman next to what could generally be called a table with a cake on it, to the plastic mannequin-like puppet in clown costume and makeup, that just looked wrong in a very similar way Michael did, but worse, because Gerry was used to Michael, but this collage of a vaguely human shape made his skin crawl and had it not been for his general distaste for the Desolation he would have nearly welcomes the other woman close to it, flaming fingers coming dangerously close to the clown. She looked like she wouldn’t stop there. 

There were a couple more...figures about but Gerry was already backing off, stressed by the fact that he couldn’t keep his eyes on all of them at once, that he was clearly outnumbered. His blood was too loud in his ear to hear anything of what was being said, and he didn’t  _ want _ to hear, it was never a good idea to listen to such creatures. The door was still there and Gerry pulled it close with more force than necessary once he was through. Being inside the hallways just made him start questioning what he had just seen, made him wonder how it could be, how it probably wasn’t and Gerry’s heart was racing when he threw the door open again, hoping for...confirmation?

He was in the archive, the break room, to be more specific. Jon, Tim, Martin and Sasha were there, too, for some reason, looking somewhat surprised when they saw Gerry. Then they started  _ singing _ and Gerry was really starting to consider if he was just losing his mind. Jon looked incredibly uncomfortable as he mumbled along to ‘happy birthday’ and everybody else seemed to be singing off-key differently, and Gerry just stared.

Gerry hadn’t necessarily  _ forgotten _ the date. It wasn’t something he made a big deal of. He wouldn’t know _ how _ . It had never been a thing growing up and changing that had never even occurred to him. He had never really had anyone he could even consider celebrating with and even when that had started to change, it just didn’t seem like a relevant detail to linger on. In many ways, this seemed even  _ more _ unreal than what he had just left behind.  _ Gerry had no idea what he was supposed to do _ . 

Michael was standing next to him when the singing ceased and Gerry couldn’t remember when it had appeared, and neither did he know if he should say or do anything in the silence that followed the singing and clapping.

“Thank you?” he said, because it seemed like the right thing to say and he was starting to feel his face heat up at the strange situation. 

“Can we  _ finally  _ cut the cake?” Tim said, putting an end to the awkward moment as everybody seemed to set into motion, cutting the cake Gerry hadn’t noticed on the counter and distributing it on plates among them.

Gerry approached to get the plate Sasha was holding out to him and she hugged him, with a ‘happy birthday’. 

She gave him a warm smile. “Are you okay? You look a bit...shocked.”

“Uh, I...I’m just not...used to this?” He frowned, wishing to change the topic to something that was more in his comfort zone, and also made him blush less. “How...did you even know?”

Sasha nodded towards Michael, who seemed to be bothering Jon already. The familiarity of the sight made Gerry relax a little, a small smile making its way onto his face. 

Sasha smiled. “It told us a couple weeks ago.”

“Why did you never mention it?” Tim asked, hand coming to rest on Gerry’s shoulder with a grin. “Happy birthday, by the way.”

Gerry looked at him and shrugged. “I didn’t really consider it relevant?”

“Having us miss out on an excuse to extend the break? How cruel.” He laughed and despite her rolling her eyes, Sasha was chuckling, too. Gerry had to grin.

They ate the cake and chatted, Martin eventually coming to congratulate Gerry, too, and chat about Gerry’s day, though seeing as Gerry had spent most of it doing nothing the conversation topic shifted to Martin’s day, that had been mostly work.

“I’m surprised, to be honest. When I heard you’d taken the day off I thought it was for something birthday related,” Martin noted after it became clear that Gerry had barely left his bed today, just as his rumpled clothes suggested.

Gerry shrugged, “I didn’t really look at the date, I just had to use of some of my free days, really.”

Martin chuckled and shook his head. “It did make preparing this all easier.”

“Glad I could be so convenient for you.” He laughed, and Martin smiled.

Eventually, Gerry leaned against the counter next to Jon, who had retreated from socialising a little bit ago. He didn’t look like he wasn’t enjoying himself, though, body language more relaxed than Gerry was generally used to seeing it. He gave Jon the glass he had picked up for him and watched as he drank.

“How long are you letting this break go on?” Gerry asked with a small grin.

Jon shrugged. “Happy birthday.”

“Thanks.”

Michael was staring, rather intently, at the counter where most others had ended up leaning against and standing in front of, talking and laughing. Well, Tim was talking, Martin and Gerry occasionally adding something to whatever he was going about. Even Jon occasionally chuckled at what was being said.

“Are you upset?” Sasha asked, coming to a stop next to Michael.

She had only left the room for a short moment, but it had been enough for the conversation to shift to where Jon had been leaning. Michael seemed to have abandoned all attempts at engaging, which seemed a little unlike it.

“I’m not.” It didn’t look at her, but its voice seemed unusually warm. “He looks happy.”

She followed its gaze to find Gerry nearly doubled over in laughter, fully comfortable by now, eyes full of mirth as he tried to take a sip from his drink after calming down, only to give up as another fit of giggles caught him as Martin mumbled something under his breath. He  _ did _ look happy.

“I know what’ll make him even happier.” Sasha grinned as Michael perked up with interest, eyes settling on her after some difficulty of dragging them away from Gerry. 

She took it by the wrist and pulled it towards the rest. Gerry’s eyes lit up as he saw them approach and Martin was already holding out a glass to Sasha with a smile. Michael settled next to Gerry soundlessly, for its standards, not wanting to interrupt the good mood.

“There you are,” Gerry mumbled, wrapping one around its waist and looking up at it with a smile. “Did you try the cake?”

It nodded and leaned against him a little, with a smile. “Happy birthday.”

“Thank you.” He rested his head against its arm, listening to Sasha’s corrections of Tim’s story from before with a happy smile and the occasional laugh. 

Michael chuckled next to him, slowly becoming a lot more present as the conversation caught its interest.

*

Gerry felt surprisingly exhausted considering he had done very little all day. Michael felt particularly comfortable underneath him tonight, and the nonsensical patterns it had been drawing on his back since he had laid down on it was doing little to keep Gerry from sleep creeping up on him. He gave a content sigh as it ran its fingers through his hair for a moment before following his spine.

“Did you have a nice day?” it mumbled, voice pleasantly muffled with one of Gerry’s ears pressed against its chest.

He smiled. “I did. Thank you so much.”

“You didn’t like  _ my _ party.” 

It sounded suspiciously neutral. Gerry shifted his head, holding back a yawn, and looked up at its face.

“I still appreciate the effort.” He rubbed at his eye, trying to wake up a little. “I...it was nice. Sasha told me you were the one who told them about my birthday? 

Michael shrugged. "I just asked for advice. I only had a passing idea of what...people tend to do on those days."

Gerry smiled at the image of Michael going around asking what it should do to make it a nice birthday for Gerry.

"Did Tim suggest the clown?" he asked, drawing circles on Michael’s chest.

It frowned. "Yes."

Gerry chuckled, and buried his nose in its chest. “In a way, both parties were yours, then.”

There was a moment of silence, Michael’s hand pausing on Gerry’s lower back.

“I...guess that’s an appropriate distortion of the truth…” it finally said, sounding satisfied. Gerry shivered pleasantly as he felt its fingertips run up his side.

“Mhm.” He sighed, closing his eyes. “No, but seriously. Thank you for thinking of me.”

Gerry was too tired to bother with wondering how he was feeling Michael’s lips on his head without it moving from its position. “Always.”

**Author's Note:**

> I got unreasonably emotional writing this :')


End file.
